Army men

Unlike the more expensive toy soldiers available in hobby shops, army men are sold at low prices in discount stores and supermarkets.

Army men are traditionally solid green or tan and almost always dressed in modern military uniforms and armed with 20th-century weapons.

They are equipped with a variety of weapons, typically from World War II to the current era, often depicting the 1964 Vietnam-era M-16 rifle with fixed M7 bayonet.

The traditional helmets are the older M1 "steel pot" style that were issued to US soldiers during the middle to late 20th century.

A rival manufacturer, the Multiple Plastics Corporation (MPC) also sold plastic figures in various colors with different separate accessories, so the same figures could be kitted out as soldiers (green), farmers, pioneers or cowboys (brown), policemen (blue), ski troopers (white) spacemen (various colors), or American Civil War soldiers in blue and gray.

After 1950, rising production costs and the development of plastic meant that many shop keepers liked the lighter, cheaper, and far less prone to break in transit polythene figure.

In 1965, a "D-Day" Marx set featured Allies such as French (horizon blue), British (khaki), and Russians.

[6][7] Regarding this iconic set, one website notes: The absolute number one most common plastic army men of today are Vietnam era soldiers.

[8]Today most army men are made inexpensively in China and do not include the extensive accessories that were common in Marx playsets.

Toy cowboys and Indians, farm sets, spacemen, knights, dinosaurs, firemen, police officers and other playsets are often sold alongside army men.

They are especially well suited for the sandbox, or simple wargames with rubber balls or marbles, which can be rolled or thrown at army men.

On one occasion, children were asked to clip the weapons off of plastic army men on display during an elementary school graduation ceremony.

[14] They have also been the exclusive (albeit stop-motion) actors in a music video featuring an instrumental track by the band Pink Martini,[15] as well as for use in experimental marine ecology examining habitat selection in the estuarine shrimp, Palaemon macrodactylus.

In Witching & Bitching, a 2013 Spanish horror-comedy film co-written and directed by Álex de la Iglesia,[17] Mario Casas impersonates a thief disguised as street mime.